Emanuel Ax returns to Chamber Concert Series

The eminent pianist Emanuel Ax returns to Memorial Chapel as part of the Union College Concert Series Thursday, April 17 at 8 p.m.

The series welcomes back legendary pianist Emanuel Ax for “The Brahms Project” – his innovative program offering works of Brahms interspersed with newly-commissioned works inspired by that master. He begins the evening with Brahms’s early work – the Piano Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 2 and follows it with Australian composer Brett Dean’s Hommage à Brahms. Ax segues to the last work Brahms wrote for the piano – the Klavierstücke, Op. 119. The second half of the program kicks off with Brooklyn-based composer Missy Mazzoli’s Bolts of Loving Thunder, and the program concludes with Brahms’s virtuosic Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24.

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax captured the world’s attention in 1975 when he won the prestigious Arthur Rubenstein Competition, and has been at the forefront of the music world ever since. Making regular appearances with leading orchestras around the world, he performed this season with the London Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink in celebration of its 100th Anniversary in London, New York, and with the Concertgebouw and Mariss Jansons in Bucharest and cities throughout the Far East. He offers his “Brahms Project” in New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Chicago and in other cities around the country. His frequent appearances at the Tanglewood Festival have made him a favorite of the Capital Region.